Factors Affecting The Selection Of Business School

The CBSE results for class 12th is declared. The next phase of the battle starts to select a business school. Start searching for colleges as this is the time when you are about to enter into a college and take a step further in your career. Itne saare colleges hai kismein lein admission or kismein nahi is the biggest difficulty everyone is going through.

Decide hi nahi ho paa rha. Well, Business schools (B- schools) are also there for you to take admission, you can consider them as an option. There are a limitless number of Business Schools present today. Each one is better than the next in some or the other way. So, how can you choose the best one for yourself?

Points to consider to select the Business school for you

1. Faculty Base

The B-Schools know that due to immense competition, students have become particular about several things that might affect their studies. Hence, starting from the faculty base, make sure you have a genuine list of the permanent faculty members. Their lists might even have the name of the guest lecturers who visited their school years ago.

This is done to manipulate the students and attract them by showing the names of the reputed visitors on the faculty list. This might make a student feel more inclined towards that school. So, see a genuine list containing the qualifications of the respective faculty members too.

The faculty-student ratio must be 1:3 or even better. Make a comparison of the faculty-student ratio as well as the qualifications of the faculties when you decide to choose a B- school.

2. Placements

Placements are a matter of concern for many students while selecting a B-School. In the end, everyone wants a job. This is mostly the make or break parameter. Many of us are like: “M institute has 0.3 LPA more average salary than N institute. Hell, I will choose M”. However, this is not how it should be!

Most B-Schools mention their average package and also the highest CTC offered. But they forget to inform you about the profiles that receive those packages.

Don’t get tempted by the names of the big companies in the recruiters’ list. Also, many companies that offer low CTC may be the best ones to join when you take work culture and profiles offered into consideration. Though the CTC would be low initially, it will exponentially increase as these companies offer great progression opportunities.

So, in a nutshell, placement parameters shouldn’t be easily taken at face values published in the reports of the colleges. You should also try to search the alumni of respective colleges at professional websites like LinkedIn and check how are they doing and what has been the career progression for them.

3. Location

The site where the B-School is located also plays a big role and should be given due weightage while choosing between two B-Schools of the same level. If the B-School is located in metros or cosmopolitan cities, the industry interaction is going to be better as most of the industries in India are established around few cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, etc.

Many students opt for colleges at a location near their house as they do not want to travel long distances. So the top B-school might be located at a distance and the second rank at a near distance, now choose between the distance or the rank of the college.

4. Pedagogy

The success of MBA programs in India has been due to the dynamic nature of the pedagogy involved (a process of learning or transforming of knowledge). This is one area where most of the university programs lack behind as compared to sovereign institutions in meeting the industry needs.

Thus, a PGDM program is more dynamic, flexible and in sync with the industry needs than an MBA program from a University. However, exceptions are always there. Example- Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi is a good exception to this.

Having said this, do have a careful look at the pedagogy before choosing between 2 B-Schools.

5. Batch Strength

When two B-Schools of the same level are compared, the batch size is also an important factor in decision making. Larger the batch size, lesser the attractiveness. This is because most of the B-schools keep increasing their batch strength and likewise, keep forgetting about increasing and improving their infrastructure, faculty base, and placement facilities!

Everyone pays the fees and hence, demands to utilize it to its worth. If the strength keeps on increasing, the students would find it difficult to interact with each other and also with the faculty. The more the strength, the more the competition.

No matter how good the B-School is, if the batch size is large, at least 5-10% of students do face problems in getting decent offers. The only benefit in institutes with large batch sizes is that you meet new people daily from your batch and have a broader base of the peer group for discussions.

6. Ranking

Never let your decision to join a B-School be controlled by rankings of a single source. Check various sources and try to understand the methodologies being used by the respective sources for the rankings generated by them.

Different rankings have different parameters that are highly subjective. If the rankings were perfect, they would have been consistent across the sources, but they are not!

We even have certain private B-Schools who simply shell out a few bucks to get a good position in the rankings. Thus, be objective while reviewing B-School rankings.

7. International Academic Collaboration

The international linkages in terms of corporate integration and academic alliance also indicate the strength of a college. Linkage with a better university always provides better expansion opportunities and exposure. But this is again slightly ambiguous.

There would be certain private B-Schools claiming of collaborations with foreign universities to attract you. But, you should not blindly believe the reliability of these foreign universities. Do a bit of research and check the credibility of these universities. You must be careful because once you are a part of the college, the standard of the foreign university affects your future too. The university must be fully recognized in its respective nation.

8. Flagship Course

Before deciding on a B-School, always check its chief management course. This is because mainly that course is the center of attention from teaching to placement. This doesn’t mean that you drop your choice to get into the college with the chief course as something that is not of your choice.

Do check whether it matches your career interests. Compromising on a course because of a college’s brand doesn’t benefit anyone in the long run.

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